Welcome to the finalHutchBook
project progress report that will be posted at
SeattleHistoryCompany.com! It was somewhat bittersweet to post the
"HutchBook.com Launched September 30, 2009" headline on the Home page.
Five years of progress reports (monthly for four years, weekly during
the past year) have served as an effective means of communicating with
all interested parties. While in the final throes of preparing to
launch HutchBook.com, I realized my time is now better invested in
focusing on adding new site content and documenting a list of changes
you can review at your convenience.

In weeks to come,
portions of the Hutchinson-specific material currently posted here on
SeattleHistoryCompany.com will be migrated to HutchBook.com. Until that
happens, please continue to refer to both sites.

The rest of today will
be dedicated to posting more HutchBook.com information (check the Home
page for change details). Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading for Oregon to
run my 28th consecutive Portland Marathon on Sunday morning. My brain
looks forward to a short break from thorny web site issues!

Last week's update
mentioned the appearance of several previously unknown Hutchinsons.
The grand total temporarily dipped, however, when several of these
"rare" bottles were identified as fakes being offered by a con artist
using craigslist.com in an attempt to defraud unsuspecting collectors.
Please visit mrbottles.com and read Steve's comments to ensure you
don't get ripped off! New (legitimate) listings have boosted the grand
total to 16,503 as of today.

Although we are closing
this
Hutchinson Bottle Directory
initiative chapter, the next one is already proving to be incredibly
exciting. Please share in the experience by switching to HutchBook.com
and checking it out right now!

Identifying and
cataloguing two new Hutchinsons in order to reach the 16,500 level
proved more challenging than I thought it would be. Bottle #16,499
turned up as GreedyBay 320426308126 soon after posting last week's
update. It is a Rare example embossed S. BURTIS / GOUVERNEUR / N.Y.
(why does this bottle have no bids?). Two days later #16,500 had yet to
surface, so I stopped searching and began to pull together the current
Hutchinson Bottle Of The Week feature. Naturally, I no sooner started
that process than newly identified bottles began appearing. The grand
total is now at 16,504 and still growing. Bottle #16,500 is a beautiful
pint from Britton, South Dakota. Other new listings include a Pekin,
North Dakota pint, and a peacock blue Kenosha, Wisconsin quart (yes,
a peacock
blue quart!).
We hope to feature each of these as future Hutchinson Bottles Of The
Week.

A common theme to this
week's correspondence has been the appearance of previously unknown,
small-town Hutchinsons. One bottle is from a town that had a population
of 80 in 1900 (located on a railroad line, so most likely the bottler
was selling soda to train passengers and/or supplying other local
towns). I had three separate conversations with fellow advanced
Hutchinson collectors and we were all grumbling that at times Rare
bottles seem to show up faster than we can catalog them! Years ago I
gave up the idea that I would ever be able to obtain an example of all
known Oregon and Washington Hutchinsons. Invariably, just when I think
I'm closing in on having them all, new ones appear. (I suddenly have a
vision of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.)
Chasing a moving target can be frustrating and expensive, but it's one
of the reasons I love this crazy hobby!

HutchBook.com
construction is proceeding steadily. At least the basic shell of the
site is on target to be posted by month's end. Bear with me; I'm a
bottle collector, not a web designer!

Several readers have
asked questions about and/or commented on the porch rebuilding project.
If you're curious to see what all of my whining was about, check out
the photos and brief comments posted at Porch.

We're closing
in on 16,500!

September 18,
2009

What a week! Seattle's
nice fall weather continues; that was good news for the porch project,
but it made for a miserably warm marathon last Sunday. I survived, but
it wasn't pretty. Most of the daylight hours since then have been spent
slapping crimson paint (it matches the headline color) on the new steps,
risers, and porch decking, and then touching up the house's gray siding
and white trim. This has been a lengthy project, but considerable
planning and careful attention-to-detail produced a finished product
that exceeded my expectations. Hopefully HutchBook.com will provide a
similar end result!

We're continuing to
fill in missing bottle data and add new Hutchinson listings. This
week's highlights included: three more for Minnesota (thanks, Austin!) -
the MN total is now 475; two more for New York (thanks for the
information on the nice Friendship, NY bottle, Joel!) - the NY total is
now 1,343; and a beautiful "neon yellow green" M. GONDREZICK / TOMAH /
WIS. bottle - the WI total is 1,071. To see photographs and read about
the colored WI Hutchinson, visit the www.mrbottles.com
Home page. This week's flurry of activity brought the grand total
number of Hutchinsons catalogued to 16,498. Whew!

I'm continuing to
tinker with the basic design for HutchBook.com, striving to make the
navigation as intuitive as possible. Gathering information about 100+
year old soda bottles is a snap compared to designing web sites! In
spite of such challenges, it is incredibly exciting to be this close to
starting to make the Hutchinson material available! I am still planning
to open the site to the public by September 30th, but will likely be
posting Phase I materials into October.

In case you missed the
results of the GreedyBay auctions for the two bottles with fake etchings
mentioned last week, the siphon drew 21 bids and closed at $76.01 + $14
P&H. $90 for a foreign siphon with fake etching; how ridiculous!
The fake gun oil bottle attracted five bids and sold for $22.49 + $14
P&H.

Check back for news
about the cataloguing of Hutchinson #16,500!

Curves and
sliders are okay, but please, no spitballs!

September 11,
2009

After 10 days of
non-stop but much-needed rain, we're again enjoying nice weather and the
front porch project is receiving major attention. Yesterday's
application of caulk improved the aesthetics thanks to masking some of
my amateurish carpentry efforts. Once this update is posted, more caulk
and wood filler will be applied, and hopefully by tomorrow primer will
be protecting the wood from the next round of rain showers. Major
projects require considerable effort, plus a planning approach that
provides the flexibility to deal with the inevitable curve balls that
are thrown one's way.

This week's HutchBook
activity didn't include unhittable pitches, but likewise the activity
wasn't predictable. Thanks to an Internet search, a collector in Puerto
Rico contacted us concerning Hutchinsons and hopefully we're about to
finally have a resident PR Hutchinson specialist. We have only seven PR
Hutchinsons catalogued and have heard rumors there may be as many as 50.
Our potential new PR specialist suggests there are at least 30.
Hopefully we'll be able to add these additional listings soon. It is
very satisfying to constantly improve the quantity and quality of
HutchBook data. New listings this week boosted the grand total number
of bottles catalogued to 16,488.

Other than discussing
Puerto Rican bottles, this has been a typical week for HutchBook
activity, as we've communicated with collectors of Montana, Wisconsin,
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Mexico, Louisiana, Connecticut,
Washington, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, Illinois, and Indiana
Hutchinsons.

HutchBook activity has
also included more design work on the basic web site structure. There is
a delicate balance between having a minimal number of easily
understandable, high level navigation buttons, while simultaneously
making it easy for users to find the information they are seeking.
Using the "BOTTLING" navigation button as an example, the "Quick-Links"
index at the top of the page will include these section headings:

Introduction

The American Bottling
System

Pre-Hutchinson Era
Bottling

Hutchinson's Patent
Spring Stopper

Hutchinson Bottles

The Hutchinson Bottling
Process

Each Quick-Link heading
is a "hot link" to a specific portion of the accompanying material,
eliminating/minimizing scrolling. In the case of "BOTTLING," there are
65 (printed) pages of information. Please visit www.KocaNola.com
to see how these Quick-Links work and let me know if you have questions
or comments.

Bottles with fake
etchings continue to catch my eye on GreedyBay. One of the more
persistent GreedyBay peddlers of these (and all sorts of other) fake
items is "bigindian3," purportedly located in "Northern Missouri."
He/she has earned GreedyBay's "Top-Rated Seller" designation
(apparently they don't yet have a "Top-Rated Faker" designation). Check
out GreedyBay 200381328860, a fake Dr Pepper siphon, and 190333509794, a
fake Browning Gun Oil bottle. If your stomach can handle it, scope out
the sellers' other items. Don't waste your time reporting any of these
fraudulent items; GreedyBay doesn't care and won't take action.
Apparently they think we're stupid and don't know a spitball when we
see one. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox and get busy on the porch
project!

Major Project
Announcement: HutchBook.com
Target Launch Dates!

September 4,
2009

This has been another highly enjoyable, very
productive week highlighted by considerable HutchBook progress.
(Wrapping up construction work on the front porch [caulking, priming,
and painting remain to be finished] has helped my attitude immensely, as
did knocking out a long training run in preparation for next weekend's
initial fall marathon.) I have been thoroughly enjoying communicating
with collectors from across the country, particularly concerning several
maverick Hutchinsons (check the Can You Identify These
Unknown Hutchinsons?
page).

After posting last
week's HutchBook update, an inquiry arrived from one of the newer
Hutchinson specialists asking if I had established a time frame for
opening HutchBook.com to the public. After evaluating current project
status and reviewing my schedule for the upcoming months, I put together
a response that included specific target launch dates. For the benefit
of everyone interested in the HutchBook project, here's a slightly
edited version of my response that I am now sharing as a:

MAJOR PROJECT
ANNOUNCEMENT

This is the first book
project (my 10th) that hasn't had "deadlines" and "due dates." Early on
I realized we will constantly be adding new bottles, correcting errors,
adding tidbits of data, etc. Initially I estimated it would take five
years to put everything together, but we're now five years and eight
months into it and the number of bottles we've catalogued has doubled,
I've switched from planning to publish to paper to building a web site,
and on and on. Now that www.KocaNola.com is back up and I've built and
successfully launched a site with MS Expression Web 2 software, I've
boiled the next steps down to:

Phase II: Finish the MS
Access database listing all 16,400+ bottles and move this up to
www.HutchBook.com for all to use
before December 31, 2009;

Phase III: Add bottle
illustrations on a go forward basis as they are completed, commencing in 2010;
and

Phase IV: Maintain
HutchBook.com for years to come.

Some folks aren't going
to be happy that I'm planning to bring the site up in phases, but it
isn't like this is a simple project and a staged approach seems very
logical. I keep reminding people that access to HutchBook.com will be
FREE and ask everyone to please be patient; I believe the wait will be
worth it.

There you have it, a
plan with specific target dates for opening HutchBook.com to the public
in phases. Considerable effort will be required to meet these
challenging objectives, but I think I'm up to it. Stay tuned and find
out!

Looking at the
bigger picture...

August 28, 2009

After four days of
rebuilding the front steps and porch, I am taking this morning off to
prepare and post this week's Home page and HutchBook updates. My aching
muscles definitely appreciate the break! Progress on the porch project
is going better than anticipated, even though removal of the old steps,
risers, and decking took considerably longer than I had hoped. The 85
year old lumber was held together with hundreds of nails, caulk, and
8-10 coats of lead paint. The area under the steps and porch hadn't
seen daylight since 1924, and visions of discovering a stash of bottles
and lost coins turned into finding only a few broken bricks and one Ball
fruit jar shard. Adjusting the replacement wood to fit spaces that
aren't either square or level has proven tricky, but the new steps,
risers, and half of the fir decking are all in place. I am now focused
on nailing
down the last of the decking and getting everything primed and painted
before the fall marathon season starts up.

HutchBook progress this
week has been steady in spite of working on the porch. Non-stop input
from Hutchinson specialists and new on-line auction listings have
boosted the grand total number of bottles catalogued to 16,479. Keep
those cards, letters, EMails, photographs, pencil rubbings, and phone
calls coming!

Although I am
(obviously!) keenly interested in bottles that utilized Hutchinson's
Patent Spring Stoppers, I collect all types of soda bottles and related
soft drink industry memorabilia from the states of Oregon and
Washington, not strictly Hutchinsons. For 10 years I acquired all types
of bottles before deciding to specialize in sodas almost 40 years ago.
Unlike many collectors, my interests haven't changed and my passion for
Oregon and Washington sodas remains high. I have never been tempted to
switch to another collecting category, but if I did, I'd likely go with
Western whiskies or bitters. I recently learned of new whiskey (www.globtopwhiskies.com)
and bitters (www.westernbittersnews.com)
blogs, and I have been following both of them on a regular basis. In
addition to providing interesting reading material on bitters, whiskies,
bottle digging, and research topics, I have been evaluating both sites
in order to learn more about how blogs function. My interest in these
blogs relates directly to my on-going
desire to incorporate some sort of user communications functionality
into HutchBook.com. As the content of the whiskies and bitters blogs
has grown, so too has the need for indexing that makes it easy for
readers to search for and find information concerning specific topics.
If you're creating, reading, or otherwise participating in a blog (on
any topic) that you think is particularly well organized and could serve
as a model for the creation of a HutchBook blog, please EMail me the URL
and your thoughts or suggestions. At this point, I envision a HutchBook
blog with content that would be open for the public to read, but the
creation of said content would be limited to HBCA members.

This has been a routine
week of work on the HutchBook project, with nothing out of the ordinary
to report. The upcoming week will likely see less than usual HutchBook
activity while I focus on rebuilding my house's 85 year old front porch
and steps. That will be the last of my summer projects with the fall
marathon season starting up again after Labor Day. Where has summer
gone?

Welcome
Back
KocaNola.com!

August 14, 2009

This update has been
months in the making. At long last, the "new, improved" MS Expression
Web 2 version of KocaNola.com was moved up to GoDaddy's server late this
morning. Charles David Head and I are already working on a list of
changes and material that will be added, and now there's a live site to
change! I particularly want to salute Patricia, an ace GoDaddy
technical support representative who correctly analyzed and solved the
upload problems we were experiencing. Danica Patrick gets most of the
national headlines, but Patricia was our go-to GoDaddy girl when the
chips were down. After you finish reading this update, please check out
KocaNola.com.

The PINE MOUNTAIN /
BOTTLING WORKS bottle (last week's "Hutchinson (Shard) Of The Week") has
drawn considerable attention from collectors in several states across
the South. Laton Bare pulled his research cap on and dug out several
snippets of information that lead us to believe this bottle is either
from Georgia or Alabama. We're still hoping more information (and a
photograph of a whole example) will be forthcoming. We'll share
whatever we find out.

Considerable time was
spent updating the North Carolina (56), Florida (254), and Illinois
(1,082) spreadsheets this week (their respective totals are shown in
parentheses). Illinois has now moved past Wisconsin (1,070) into third
place for most Hutchinsons behind Pennsylvania (2,935), and New York
(1,338). The grand total is now at 16,468 and still climbing.

Time Flies When
One Is Having Fun...

August 7, 2009

One year ago today I
was attending the FOHBC EXPO in York, PA, pitching the Hutchinson Bottle
Directory
and HBCA, and explaining where the HutchBook initiative was headed.
What a year it has been since then! In spite of a nasty sinus
infection I picked up at York and thirteen more marathons, I have
enjoyed spending each of the past 365 days working on the HutchBook
project. Although we have yet to open the new site to the public, it
has been a year of solid progress. We have catalogued 400+ more
Hutchinsons, and added thousands of bits of data for existing listings.
Considerable time has also been devoted to obtaining, installing,
learning to use, and converting HutchBook.com from Yahoo's Sitebuilder
to MS FrontPage to MS Expression Web 2. Although I wanted to meet the
original five year target delivery date, we made a major error by
estimating there were "only" 7,000-10,000 different Hutchinsons. Today
the grand total is at 16,460 and still climbing. These factors combined
to lengthen the delivery time for HutchBook.com, but the trade off was
worth it; we have data quantity and quality far exceeding what I ever
dared to dream were possible. My thanks to everyone actively involved
in making this project happen.

Even though this year's
national FOHBC show was held on the West Coast last weekend, I was
unable to attend. The initial reports I've read indicate there were
some nice Hutchinsons on display and for sale in Los Angeles. An entry
at www.globtopwhiskies, a blog devoted to Western whiskies, mentions a
display featuring "hutch sodas from the various U.S. States." If you
can provide photos and information about this display, please EMail me
at
SodaBottles@yahoo.com.

Earlier this week EMail
brought the sad news that Paul Welko lost his long battle with cancer.
Paul was a very well-known, long-time Chicago collector, one of our
first Hutchinson specialists, an HBCA member, and a wealth of knowledge
about the history of W. H. Hutchinson & Son. We have lost yet another
of the good guys who contribute more back to our hobby than they
receive. Our sincere condolences to Paul's family.

Web site "hit" counts
indicate more people are regularly reviewing the Home page changes
(particularly the "Hutchinson Bottle Of The Week" feature) than read
these weekly progress reports. Some of the telephone and EMail
questions I receive also concern issues that were already
answered/explained via these updates. Consequently, as a treat for
those of you who do
faithfully read these progress reports, here's a photo you might enjoy.
Ed Tardy in Arkansas sent this image taken during the preparations he
and several digging buddies went thru prior to splitting over 2,000
bottles and jugs acquired during three years of digging. This photo
shows some of the over 300 Hutchinsons they divided. I'd tell you more,
but I have to go get a towel to wipe the drool off my chin...

We're Havin' A
Heat Wave...

July 31, 2009

The record-eclipsing
heat wave hitting Western Washington this week reminds me I need to more
frequently give thanks for the opportunity to live in this area, instead
of somewhere with routinely high summer temperatures. While driving to
the airport mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the car's thermometer registered
105. It topped out at 109 near downtown on the way back home.
Wednesday's official high temperature of 103 broke the Seattle area's
all-time high since record keeping began here in 1881. That wasn't the
daily record, that was the all-time record for any
day in Seattle. A small, portable fan
became my new best friend this week, faithfully following me from room
to room and spinning all night long as I try to catch up on sleep. All
to say that this has been a highly unproductive
week for HutchBook activities. The weather guessers are suggesting
somewhat cooler temperatures are headed this way in days to come and I
certainly hope they are correct! Okay, enough of my whining...

One HutchBook activity
that drew considerable attention this week was updating the Arkansas
Hutchinson listings courtesy of detailed bottle data and terrific
photographs supplied by Ed Tardy (see the Home
page "Hutchinson Bottle(s) Of The Week" piece featuring a pair of Ed's
bottles from Helena, Arkansas). Considerable time was also devoted to
reviewing on-line auction listings and continuing to catch up on long
overdue responses to EMail inquiries. The total number of Hutchinsons
catalogued bounced up and down all week while we cleaned up some listing
errors, ending at 16,454.

Without question the
week's most exciting new listing is a previously unknown quart
Hutchinson we hope to feature as an upcoming Hutchinson Bottle Of The
Week. Not only is the bottle previously unknown, it is from a state
with no known quart Hutchinsons at all until now, and oh, by the way, it
is an error bottle with the town name spelled incorrectly. This one
brings the total number of catalogued quart Hutchinsons from west of the
Mississippi River to ten. Stay tuned for more details and in the
meantime, stay cool!

Chalk up
another one...

July 23, 2009

This week hasn't been
as productive as planned thanks to devoting considerable time to several
other very important, non-HutchBook activities. I have still only
missed two days of working on the project seven days per week during the
past 5.5 years, and occasionally other activities demand attention too
in order to keep the master to-do list somewhat under control.

In case you don't
routinely scroll down the Home page and missed noting some of the
changes continually posted on this site, click on the Bringing Betsy Back
page to review photos from the two most recent car shows I have
attended. Betsy isn't currently signed up for more shows, but we will
probably do one or two more before the fall marathon season starts up
again in September.

I enjoyed lunches with
a two close friends earlier this week, plus a tasty birthday dinner
hosted by long-time bottle buddy Mark Nelson (the birthdays keep coming
faster, but having them still beats the alternative). Mark tumbled
three of my Washington Hutchinsons as a birthday gift and they look so
much better it feels like I upgraded to mint specimens. Thanks, Mark!

The grand total number
of Hutchinsons catalogued is now at 16,451.

Its a red
letter day!

July 17, 2009

Yesterday a long-time
friend and I spent the day taking a nostalgic trip thru the area south
of Olympia, Washington where I lived during my high school and college
years. It was fun to see and visit many of the spots that have had such
a lasting impact on my life. Although it was somewhat distressing to see
that our once beautiful cattle ranch has been converted to a huge dairy
operation, it was fun to remember back 48 summers to the day a square
inkwell popped out of the ground at one of the dump sites used by the
original 1860 homesteader's family. The bottles I dug out of that dump
during the next two years were my introduction to what has been a highly
enjoyable, lifelong hobby. As we left the property I was reminded of
July 17, 1969, the day I ran 1/4 mile up that same
road, sat down and rested for 15 minutes, and had to walk back to the
house; a measly quarter mile was as far as I could run non-stop. That
was embarrassing and provided the motivation necessary to start running
regularly. Today marks my 40th anniversary of running and like bottle
collecting, it too has become a highly enjoyable, lifelong activity. How
fortunate I am to have found and enjoyed my passion for these interests
for so many years.

The past two
"Hutchinson Bottle Of The Week" features generated interesting EMail
input and telephone conversations. As indicated several times before,
not everyone agrees with the definition of "variant" we are using for
the HutchBook, nor the approach we are taking as regards Hutchinsons
versus bottles designed for use with Matthews' Gravitating Stoppers. If
you are troubled by our approach, please remember that we have
absolutely no intention of trying to tell anyone else how they should
collect; that is your business, not ours! A primary HutchBook objective
from the get go has been to catalog all bottles that were produced for
use with Hutchinson's Patent Spring Stoppers. Achieving this
objective required the development of specific definitions/guidelines so
that data about the 16,450 different Hutchinsons we've identified thus
far would be manageable. We continue to believe the approach we're
taking will satisfy the interests of the majority of collectors,
historians, and archaeologists expected to most frequently utilize
HutchBook.com.

A related topic arose
out of GreedyBay 280372518700l this week. This Palmyra, Wisconsin blob
top soda has what the seller describes as a "special elongated
hutchinson stopper in the neck." The rubber disk is still attached,
begging the question of whether the bottle was once sealed with this
stopper or it was inserted years later, perhaps by a collector. From a
HutchBook point of view, it doesn't matter; this is a cork-stoppered
pony soda bottle catalogued by Tod von Mechow at www.sodasandbeers.com
and not one we are cataloguing for HutchBook.com. That inserted
Hutchinson stopper does not make it a Hutchinson!

GreedyBay 200363443991
is also an interesting listing. Although it is a Cuban Hutchinson
bottle, the seller's best guess had him/her posting it as a blob top
poison. Most likely this seller has never heard of or seen a Hutchinson
bottle. We'd appreciate your ideas and suggestions on how we can make
it easier for people to find the site you're reading and HutchBook.com
once we open it to the public. What can we do to help people find us
that aren't familiar with the terms "Hutch" or "Hutchinson?"

In celebration of
today's 40th anniversary, I'm off for a run!

Kickin' it up a
notch

July 10, 2009

If your computer's
browser picked up the color as it was mocked up, the "pink pizazz"
headline lettering above represents how this week has flown by. Rather
than continuing to whine about having "too much to do and too little
time," I hunkered down in front of this PC and had another very
productive week.

As many on-line auction
sellers are well aware, I constantly send out EMail inquiries seeking
information omitted from their listings. My questions typically concern
bottle dimensions, back and base embossing data, and clarification of
front embossing details due to the posting of so-so quality photographs.
Years of asking such questions and pointing people at the Hutchinson Bottle Sales
Guidepage seems to be paying dividends, however, as the
overall quality of listing information is steadily improving. Better
quality listings produce a win-win situation, both increasing sales for
sellers, and providing Hutchinson collectors with better information.
The seller of GreedyBay 250459146507 is not someone I know, nor do I
recall that we have ever corresponded, but clearly he/she is paying
attention! Check out this nice West Virginia Hutchinson and a top notch
example of how to put together an on-line auction site listing.

The revised version of
KocaNola.com is standing by for upload while I continue to wrestle my
way thru the labyrinth of bureaucratic red tape necessary to move the
files to the host's server. It is frustrating to be so close to the
goal line and unable to make forward progress. Hopefully we'll score
next week.

Correspondence with
collectors in Louisiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida,
California, and Canada, combined with a mid-summer increase in on-line
auction offerings, boosted the grand total number of Hutchinsons
catalogued to 16,446.

Fun
on
the
Fourth...

July 4, 2009

Thank goodness for the
holiday, even if the occasional fireworks "booms" and "bangs" are
distracting and the temperature is too warm. Although Seattle's
extended dry spell has me crankier than usual, collectors in the Midwest
are dealing with thunder and lightning, rain storms, and triple digit
heat indices, and those in Florida are tired of the seemingly
never-ending rain, so it could be worse and I'll quit whining. Besides,
staying busy with HutchBook.com activities, watching the initial stages
of new home construction on the lot directly north of my house, and
other personal matters this week didn't allow much time to sit around
and complain.

This week's activities
once again included telephone conversations with several Hutchinson
collectors around the country, and lots of EMail (apparently others are
also hibernating inside to beat the heat). The calls included
interesting discussions with Florida's Laton Bare that led directly to
selection of the newly posted "Hutchinson Bottle Of The Week." Laton
and I were cut from the same cloth when it comes to appreciating
attention to detail, and the two of us can do some serious nitpicking
when it comes to distinguishing between Hutchinson variants. One of our
conversations sparked preparation of the additional material I'll post
next week concerning "transitional" bottles.

An in-depth
conversation with a tech support person at a web hosting service has me
very optimistic about my ability to successfully navigate the
bureaucratic minefield necessary to post the new version of
KocaNola.com. Later today the existing Yahoo hosted site will be
pulled. Be watching for the new one soon!

It was a slow week for
new listings; the grand total is now 16,438.

That Was The
Week That Was...

June 27, 2009

Fans of mid-1960s TV
shows may recognize the headline for this week's update as the title of
a well known NBC show featuring a mixture of political satire and crazy
musical numbers (many written by the amazingly talented Tom Lehrer).
"TW3," as it was known, however, isn't the reason for the headline. I
am also not referring to the unfortunate passing this week of
celebrities Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. Instead I
am noting that this has been without question the most productive and
enjoyable week I have experienced since re-starting work on the Hutchinson
Bottle Directory
January 1, 2004. Projects of this magnitude naturally have many highs
and lows, and this week has been an amazing series of highs, both for
the HutchBook initiative and personally.

Communication with
Hutchinson specialists this week touched all four corners of the
continental U.S. - Maine, Florida, California, and Washington - and many
points in between. I particularly enjoyed talking/corresponding with
Laton Bare in Florida, and John Patterson in Delaware. The quantity and
quality of documentation we have for their respective states is
incredible and testimony to Laton's and John's exceptional attention to
detail. All of us will benefit from their fine input and the efforts of
all the Hutchinson specialists.

HBCA membership grew
this week with the addition of Ed LeTard in Louisiana. Years ago Ed
completed a 50 state and all territories Hutchinson collection that he
subsequently sold. These days Ed specializes in collecting Florida
whiskies, and all types of Key West, Florida bottles, and he recently
added quart Hutchinsons to the mix. There's something very special about
Hutchinsons; once one is hooked on them, "Hutchinson Fever" often
becomes a life-long passion.

The nice Saratoga
Springs bottle featured as the "Hutchinson Of The Week" is one of
several New York examples that have caught my eye lately. We have
catalogued 1,337 different New York Hutchinsons thus far, solidifying
the Empire State's position as second only to Pennsylvania for having
the most Hutchinsons. New York Hutchinson variants are continually
showing up, but it is unusual to identify one from a NY town with no
other known Hutchinsons. Last night, however, I spotted GreedyBay
170349253002, the listing for a bottle embossed Wm.
H. BELLER / MIDDLEBURGH / N.Y. We have 14 Hutchinsons catalogued from
Middletown,
but this is the first from Middleburgh.
It is very
unfortunate to report that this rare bottle somehow fell into the hands
of one of the infamous Florida GreedyBay sellers who irradiate
anything/everything that stands still (see the Caveat Emptor
page for my previous ravings about these fools). I've given up efforts
to get the bandits-in-charge at GreedyBay to boot these guys, and am
pointing out this example in order to encourage other Hutchinson fans to
help us run these Florida sellers out of our hobby.

The HutchBook highlight
of the week happened yesterday. Work on the revised version of
KocaNola.com had boiled down to a short list of items needing last
minute clean up. I plowed straight thru the list yesterday morning and
by noon everything was resolved except for the text on the "Favorite
Links" page. Try as I may, I couldn't get MS Expression to accept and
store the font style and size I had selected. Out of frustration, I
went for a run and a long walk, giving me time to mull over the
situation and come up with a "Plan B." I returned home, had at it
again, and at exactly 2000 last night the new KocaNola.com finally
became a done deal! The next challenge is contacting the web hosting
service and moving KocaNola.com up to their server. As soon as that is
done, I
will post an announcement here. Using a baseball analogy to illustrate
what this means for HutchBook.com, finishing work on KocaNola.com is
similar to completing the pre-game warmups and knowing the umpire is
about to shout "Play ball!"

The grand total number
of Hutchinsons catalogued has jumped up to 16,436.

Time flies when
you're having fun...

June 19, 2009

I wanted to post the
title in "straw yellow," but it didn't show up very well on the white
background, so I opted for "dark goldenrod" instead. "Straw yellow"
matches the color of my lawn thanks to Seattle's 29 day drought. We
were on track to break the local record today for consecutive days
without rain, but 11 minutes before midnight the rains returned and have
continued this morning. I'm a native Seattleite and feel so
much better today; breathing is much easier and the webs between my toes
are no longer dry and cracking.

This has been a fun
week featuring non-stop correspondence and conversations with collectors
in Maine, New Brunswick, Massachusetts, Utah, California, Minnesota,
Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, and Georgia. I
also snuck in some more research on bottle stopper patents and, of
course, spent considerable time on KocaNola.com. Only a few more items
remain undone on the KocaNola.com to-do list and the new site will be
ready to upload to a server. I invested more time than planned into the
Home page update on the Cherry Hill, NJ Hutchinsons and the latest
Hutchinson(s) Of The Week piece, but both were fun to work on, so no
complaints.

Speaking of fun, the
grand total number of Hutchinsons catalogued is now at 16,423 and still
climbing slowly. Keep those cards, letters, EMail messages,
photographs, and pencil rubbings coming!

Details,
details,
details...

June 12, 2009

Last Sunday's marathon
went well in spite of high humidity and fighting dehydration. Post-race
physical and mental recovery took longer than usual, but I am again
refocused on HutchBook activities including rebuilding KocaNola.com.

In addition to
cataloguing new bottles and non-stop gathering of additional bottle
data, I enjoyed being contacted by some folks who are building a series
of collectibles web sites. The information they are gathering and the
services they plan to provide for collectors seemingly have the
potential to greatly facilitate the collecting of antique bottles and
glass. You'll be hearing much more about their initiative as it
matures.

As a child my parents
stressed the importance of attention to details. Whether it was
learning to spell, writing neatly, or making sure I washed behind my
ears, they taught me that details matter. Indeed, details have been one
of the main reasons I have enjoyed collecting bottles for 48 years. The
Cherry Hill, NJ Hutchinsons featured on the Home page this week are a
perfect example of the importance of attention to details; I absolutely
live for situations such as bottles with engraving errors. What a great
hobby this is!

The grand total number
of Hutchinsons we have catalogued is now 16,418. My thanks to everyone
contributing to the Hutchinson Bottle
Directory
initiative!

So much to do,
so little time...

June 4, 2009

This has been another
one of those weeks where I knew in advance the number of items on the
to-do list far exceeded the available number of hours...

I am making solid
progress on MS Expression-based KocaNola.com. The page content and
illustrations are in place and I'm now working with presentation
features such as fonts, colors, etc. The process is taking longer than
I hoped, but the experience I'm gaining will speed construction of
HutchBook.com. It won't be too much longer until the new KocaNola.com
is moved up to a server.

Getting Betsy ready for
and participating in her first car show of the season ate up a good
portion of Tuesday. This show was at a local high school and included
as part of the last week of school's festivities. A few show photos are
posted on the Bringing Betsy Back
page.

A heat wave moved into
Seattle two days ago and we are experiencing record high temperatures.
The weather guessers say cooler air is moving in tonight and I hope
they're right, as tomorrow I'm heading 100 miles south to meet up with
my Dad. Saturday he is heading for Oregon and I'm returning home to
prepare for Sunday's North Olympic Discovery Marathon in Port Angeles.
This is likely my last marathon until September. My body is tired and
looking forward to a summer break from racing.

New Hutchinson listings
continue to dribble in, but no complaints as there are
plenty of other tasks demanding attention. The grand total is now
16,412.

More than meets
the eye...

May 29, 2009

I'm making steady
progress on rebuilding www.KocaNola.com with the newly acquired MS
Expression Web 2 software. I can't show you what has been built thus
far, and trying to describe it in words doesn't begin to communicate the
visual impact of actually viewing the revised pages. Bear with me and
you'll be able to view it soon. The initial motivation for converting
to MS Expression had to do with how "quirky" MS FrontPage is to use,
combined with the inability to move the completed FrontPage version of
the site up to a web hosting server. Although it has cost time and
money to convert the site, I am now firmly convinced it has been worth
the time and effort. MS Expression is definitely
easier to understand and use, particularly for someone with minimal web
site building experience such as myself. There are also hidden benefits
many users won't see or recognize; MS Expression sites comply with World
Wide Web Consortium standards. This means easier long-term maintenance,
cross-browser compatibility (I use MS Explorer 8.0 but many others are
utilizing different browers, such as Firefox), better search engine
accessibility, and improved utilization by non-visual browers such as
those used by the vision-impaired.

This week was filled
with typical HutchBook activities. In addition to correspondence
concerning Wisconsin, Washington, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Minnesota, and California Hutchinsons, we welcomed a new HBCA member,
and identified another previously unknown maverick bottle. The total
number of Hutchinsons catalogued has crept up to 16,407 and definitely
leveled off.

"Decoration
Day!"

May 22, 2009

It was cool and clear
at the start of last Sunday's Capital City Marathon, but by the
mid-point the sun was baking us and I covered the last 13 miles focused
on fighting off dehydration. I survived okay physically, but mental
recovery took longer than usual and consequently only minimal progress
was made on the HutchBook this week. I am now back up-to-speed and will
hopefully report considerable progress during the next two weeks before
running another marathon and enjoying the summer break until the fall
racing season starts.

In case you didn't
check the close of the auction for the siphon with the fake Coon Chicken
Inn label, it drew one more bid and closed for $91. No doubt the seller
and GreedyBay executives are enjoying counting their ill gotten money
and the buyer doesn't have a clue that he/she was defrauded. The local
politicians assure me that as soon as they are done raising taxes,
doling out millions to poorly run businesses, and posturing for their
own re-elections, they'll get after those fraudulent sellers and the
GreedyBay ripoff artists. Yeah, right.

My 97 year old Dad
drove from Texas to Iowa for "Decoration Day," as he still calls it.
He's there this weekend to place flowers on the graves of numerous
family members and friends, many of whom were veterans. My Dad is a
retired U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Colonel who served during WWII as a B-17
pilot, so if he wants to call it "Decoration Day," that works just fine
for me. I salute him and my fellow veterans, particularly those who
gave all so we can enjoy the privilege of living free in the greatest
country in the world. Thank you, vets!

Get ready, get
set...

May 14, 2009

After working with the
MS Expression Web 2 tutorial for almost two weeks, it is finally time to
take a deep breath and have at recreating KocaNola.com. I am starting
with a detailed vision of how the revised site will hopefully look; it
will be interesting to see if my fingers, eyes, and brain can function
together with the software to produce the desired end product.

In between reading
tutorial chapters and completing training exercises I took numerous
breaks to address correspondence concerning Hutchinsons from Florida,
Nebraska, Ohio, Connecticut, California, Yukon Territory, Washington,
and several other locations. Don't be surprised if several of these
areas provide featured Hutchinsons Of The Week in the future.

While paging thru
GreedyBay listings this week I spotted yet another siphon bottle with a
fake label. I often track such listings to see if bidders are starting
to realize they are being defrauded and increasingly refusing to bid,
but apparently there are still plenty of sheep waiting to be fleeced.
Many of us have repeatedly notified GreedyBay about these fraudulent
listings and it is well past time that their gutless executives are held
legally accountable for failing to take action. Check out the Caveat Emptor
page for more information about the latest listing that set me off, and
then join me in sending complaint letters to our respective
congressional representatives. Enough is enough!

The total number of
Hutchinsons catalogued keeps inching higher. We posted #16,405 this
morning, a nice Battle Creek, Michigan quart, and it certainly looks
like we'll post #16,500 before year end. Speaking of sure things, if it
is mid-May, it is time for the Capital City Marathon in Olympia, WA.
Sunday morning I'll be toeing their starting line for the 26th time.
Tune in next week to confirm I survived and then returned to report on
more HutchBook progress.

Shifting into
second gear...

May 7, 2009

Other than cataloguing
bottles, adding and correcting data, and responding to phone calls,
EMail, and hard copy letters, this entire week has been devoted to
working on the MS Expression Web 2 tutorial. Given my wrestling match
with FrontPage, I am employing a very methodical approach to learning
Expression; I am reading each chapter twice and then doing each training
exercise twice. This technique is working well thus far, and I am
increasingly optimistic about the end results. After completing the
tutorial, my first "real" work with Expression will be to rebuild and
post KocaNola.com.

I have been working
thru the tutorial after running the Tacoma Marathon and being somewhat
brain dead for a couple of days afterward. We lucked out and caught a
great weather day for the race sandwiched in between what seems to be
weeks of never-ending rain. If I wasn't a native, I'd complain.

The A. LARGE / DEADWOOD
/ S.D., a previous Hutchinson Of The Week, was on my GreedyBay watch
list all week. Bidding seemed dead until the last two hours when the
price went from $87 to close at a very respectable $361.78. Someone has
added a great Hutchinson bottle to their collection!

A couple of weeks ago I
posted a photo of a newly-acquired, maverick, amber ashtray embossed THE
/ HIDEOUT / - / JUANITA / PARK. Research has indeed confirmed it is
from Kirkland, Washington, as suspected. I am still working on dating
it and hoping to discover glass manufacturing information for it.

The grand total number
of Hutchinsons catalogued seesawed up and down all week and we're at
16,401 as of today. Keep those submissions coming!

Hurry up and
wait!

May 1, 2009

All week long I've had
one eye on whatever I was working on and the other one watching for
arrival of the new software. As the days passed, the old USAF "hurry up
and wait" feeling returned. I finally double-checked the order and
discovered the shipment was coming via the USPS, not UPS. Duh! The
USPS tracking system indicated the box left Phoenix 04-24. Seven days
elapsed before it arrived today. Apparently the USPS Pony Express
riders encountered some difficulties along the trail. Anyway, as soon
as this update is posted, the new software will be installed and work on
the tutorial will commence. I am looking forward to the challenges
ahead.

I took advantage of the
waiting time this week to update several spreadsheets, review numerous
on-line auction Hutchinson listings I hadn't yet perused, and catch up
on some long overdue correspondence. The grand total number of
Hutchinsons catalogued was above 16,400 until removal of several listing
errors reduced the total to "only" 16,399 as of today. This week we
welcomed another Hutchinson specialist to the project, plus two more new
HBCA members. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the picture continues to
take shape!

Work on the software
tutorial will keep me planted in this chair tomorrow and off my feet in
order to rest a bit for Sunday's annual Tacoma Marathon. After that
it'll be another two weeks before my next marathon and I fully intend to
report on considerable HutchBook project progress in between races.

Getting the
train back on track...

April 24, 2009

Although it was only
for a day and a half, it was relaxing to escape the various computer
challenges here at home. The marathon went very well, and during the
drive I enjoyed relaxing strolls thru several antiques malls. I saw
lots of bottles, including four common Hutchinsons, but didn't find any
bottles worth dragging home. In addition to an ashtray (see comments
and photo on the Homepage), five
etched/embossed '30s-'40s root beer mugs joined the collection.

My first Hutch Book
action upon returning home was to obtain professional advice concerning
the problems I am encountering while attempting to move the new
KocaNola.com web site to GoDaddy or Yahoo servers. The bottom line is
I'm dropping MS FrontPage web site software and moving to MS Expression
Web 2. The bad news is there'll be some down time while I learn to use
it. The good news is Expression is similar to FrontPage and
I'll be able to salvage much of the revised KocaNola.com design work and
content. I am eagerly awaiting arrival of the UPS truck bringing the
new software and a tutorial from Amazon.com. Once they arrive, I will
be focused on getting this train fully back on track and making progress
toward the launch of HutchBook.com.

In spite of computer
issues, the gathering of data for HutchBook.com continues at full speed.
This has been yet another very productive week, particularly for
cataloguing several nice, newly identified Hutchinsons. The Ardmore, PA
bottle featured on the Home
page is one of 11 new listings, boosting the grand total to 16,396 (the
PA total is 2,919). I'm open to suggestions on where to take the new
"Hutchinson Bottle Of The Week" feature, so let me hear from you.

"Been down so
long the gutter looks like 'up' to me!"

April 16, 2009

I gave brief thought to
including sound bites with this update, but figured few people wanted to
listen to me ranting and raving about computer systems. In spite of
another week's worth of effort, I have not been able to move the new
version of KocaNola.com to either the GoDaddy or Yahoo web hosting
servers. Rather than let the site remain down while I tread water and
look for a life preserver, I re-posted the original Yahoo version of the
site at KocaNola.com.
Once the new site is up (and it will
be up!), I'll announce it here.

Although it feels like
all I've been doing is wrestling with computer issues, we are still
making steady progress on HutchBook.com. The advent of spring (and
discounted GreedyBay listing fees) primed the pump and all sorts of
interesting Hutchinsons have surfaced lately. In addition to rare
bottles from FL, PA, NY, MN, OH, and numerous other areas, we have also
gathered missing data on many bottles that have been partially
catalogued for several years. The grand total number of Hutchinsons
catalogued is now at 16,385 and still growing.

Many web site visitors
aren't checking the Caveat Emptor
page, so once again I am sneaking some warnings into an update. The
April 15th issue of "Kovel's Komments" (Kovels' on-line newsletter; yes,
I reference Kovel publications in spite of AB&GC's
seemingly relentless attack on them) mentioned scam artists are now
producing beer cans with fake and fantasy labels reproduced on plastic
film and applied over existing labels. Good grief. I recently followed
GreedyBay 130299430205, yet another siphon with faked etching reading
SUSANVILLE COCA COLA / BOTTLING CO. / SUSANVILLE, CALIF. Fifteen bids
(from bidders with hidden IDs, of course) drove the closing price to
$37.99 + $14.75 P&H. GreedyBay pocketed a substantial portion of the
ill-gotten proceeds and obviously couldn't care less that they are
accomplices to fraud for knowingly facilitating the peddling of these
fake items. To make sure you
don't get ripped
off, review the excellent guide Roger Peters put together and posted,
ironically, on GreedyBay (copy and paste
http://reviews.ebay.com/Fake-seltzer-bottles-Coca-Cola-Pepsi-Dr-Pepper-Nehi_W0QQugidZ10000000003767570
into your browser). It explains and includes photos of numerous faked
siphons. Lastly, if you're wondering what these foreign siphon bottles
looked like before the faked etchings were applied, check out GreedyBay
290296157832. This seller is offering 100
of them at a $300 Buy-It-Now price! No doubt the next time you see these
very same bottles, they'll be freshly etched with major brand names.

This update's headline
is a quote from Spirit,
an enjoyable book about Texas high school football authored by Carlton
Stowers. Although I first read the book 35+ years ago, the "gutter"
line often comes to mind when I'm dealing with what seem to be
insurmountable challenges. I'm also reminded of one of my WWII B-17
pilot father's favorite USAF quotes: "The difficult we do immediately;
the impossible takes a little longer." In order to, as Cool Hand Luke
said, "get my mind right here, boss," once again I'm treating my brain
to a brief respite from the computer wars by heading to Central
Washington for the Wenatchee Marathon. There will be more progress to
report next week.

Yet another
bump in the road...

April 9, 2009

The past two weeks have
been both highly challenging and terribly frustrating. I finally
managed to learn enough about FrontPage to successfully build a complete
new version of KocaNola.com; that's the good news. The bad news is I
have not been able to move the new site to GoDaddy's servers, leading me
to consider staying with Yahoo for site hosting. Although all of this
grief has accelerated my aging process, what I am learning about
building web sites and hosting is proving invaluable as HutchBook.com is
coming together.

In between the web site
battles (and a weekend trip to Yakima, Washington for a marathon), the
usual HutchBook activities continue. Several rare Hutchinsons have been
catalogued, including examples for Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New
York, Pennsylvania (of course), et al. The new unknown maverick we
added was balanced by finally identifying the elusive W. C. HAVELOCK /
HOMESTEAD (see the Can You Identify These
Unknown Hutchinsons?
page for details). The grand total number of Hutchinsons catalogued has
grown to 16,376.

It's time for me to
contact the Yahoo and GoDaddy tech support people again.
Keep checking; KocaNola.com will
return!

The Third Time
Is A Charm...

March 28, 2009

Early in the week I decided to have yet another go at Microsoft's Step By Step FrontPage software tutorial. While working thru
the numerous CD-based lessons for the third time, I began to realize
that some of the information was finally sinking into my tired brain.
Thursday I took a deep breath and (once again) started building a new
version of KocaNola.com. Today at 1730 the task list was completed and
the new site is ready to move to GoDaddy.com for hosting. Naturally,
given that there are computers involved, making the switch isn't simple.
Yahoo has been hosting the existing site since we brought it up in late
2007. Much to my surprise I was able to cancel Yahoo's hosting on-line
without having to fight with customer service representatives, and the
previous site is
already off-line. Next on the to-do list is the detail work necessary
to have GoDaddy.com host the revised site. My goal is to have the site
up by Monday at the latest. Be watching for an announcement!

The many hours of web
site design work were interspersed with another week's worth of phone
calls, EMail messages, and snail mail from collectors across the
continent dealing with everything from identification of unknown
mavericks to updating listings for NY, PA, FL, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and
Mexico. Meanwhile, the grand total number of Hutchinsons catalogued has
grown slightly to 16,358. One of the specialists called this afternoon
and asked how many Hutchinsons I think we'll ultimately catalogue.
Given my terrible history of prognostication (fully documented in the
previous five years worth of updates that are still posted on this
site), I was reluctant to hazard a guess. But, naturally, I did anyway:
17,000 is my current guesstimate. Given how the numbers have leveled
off during the past year, plus the terrific quantity and quality of
input we've received from long-time collectors across the continent, I'm
will be quite surprised if someday we pass the 17,000 mark. Of course,
I made similar silly statements back when we passed 10,000 and 11,000
and 12,000 etc.

A lack of time (and
higher priorities) have prevented me from getting up on the "Caveat
Emptor" soapbox lately to attack the crooks who are continuing to peddle
siphons with fake etchings on GreedyBay. Another foreign bottle with a
fake etching for the XXX Root Beer stand in Issaquah, WA closed
yesterday (see 270363860641). For six days I thought that maybe at long
last people were reading and heeding the on-line guide warning about
these fakes, but during the last three hours of the auction there were
two bids and someone wasted $24.38 (+$14.75 P&H) on fraudulent goods.
Everything this seller has listed is the typical reproduction/fantasy
junk that these bandits peddle. Given the number of times these crooks
have been reported, isn't GreedyBay guilty of "collusion" for failing to
take action? Oops. Sorry; for a minute there I was back up on my
soapbox and I don't have time for that. Instead, I need to learn more
about Shared Hosting Accounts, Domain Name Servers, and File Transfer
Protocol. Whew; this computer stuff is making me thirsty; I hope one of
those guys pushing a soda cart comes by soon. A cold pineapple soda
sounds good...

Getting Back Up
To Speed...

March 20, 2009

Although this has been
a long and at times very frustrating week, we are rapidly regaining
speed. The flu that has been ravaging Seattle (record numbers of school
and work absences) hasn't quite finished with me, but it appears I may
now have the upper hand. Last Sunday I motored 75 miles south to my old
high school stomping grounds and pounded out a marathon that featured
freezing temperatures, running in heavy, wet snow and slush, and
bone-chilling winds. My body survived, and for sure I killed a few more
brain cells, but somehow I was subsequently able to successfully set up
the newly arrived PC. This was no small feat, however, given that the
accompanying instructions were without question the most poorly written
PC set up directions I have ever seen. I sure hope the manufacturer
follow-ups with a customer satisfaction survey!

Inspiration for this
week's Home page quiz originated with an excellent U.S. history book I'm
reading entitled An Age of Extremes:
1880-1917,
by Joy Hakim. This volume caught my eye because the time frame almost
perfectly matches 1879-WWI, the years I define as "The Hutchinson Era."
I have prepared extensive material on this topic for HutchBook.com.
Standing back and taking a broader look at what was going on in North
America during the Hutchinson Era provides an interesting perspective on
the many factors and influences soda bottlers and consumers were dealing
with during these years.

Rearranging the first
letters of each answer spells out HUTCHINSON ERA.

With this new PC
running at full speed, my immediate objective is revision of
KocaNola.com and switching to GoDaddy.com hosting. Be watching for an
announcement in days to come.

Luck
'O
The
Irish
(needed!)...

March 12, 2009

Anticipation was high
when the express delivery truck pulled up out front yesterday afternoon.
Unfortunately, the driver had only two of the expected three packages
containing the newly ordered PC. The on-line tracking system indicates
the 32 pound box containing the CPU, keyboard, and mouse left Reno two
nights ago. I'm hoping the box is headed this way and soon. With just
a wee bit o' Irish luck, this is the last update that will be prepared
on this PC.

Much of the past week's
activity has focused on designing and implementing a detailed plan for
transitioning from the old PC to the new one. With no change in the
operating system to contend with, I opted to use this event as an
opportunity to further upgrade the extensive data backup procedures that
have been employed since day one of the Hutchinson Bottle
Directory
project. Adding a 250GB portable hard drive to the mix is already
proving to be quite useful.

PC-specific activities
aside, this has been another non-stop week of gathering new listings,
filling in missing data, responding to numerous inquiries concerning
specific bottles, acquiring much appreciated bottle illustrations, and
identifying previously unknown mavericks. Somehow all of this has gone
on in spite of it being my turn to contend with the current strain of
flu rolling thru Seattle.

We interrupt
this program (literally)...

March 6, 2009

By Wednesday, this
tired old PC had all but ground to a halt. At that point I gave up on
finding diagnostic solutions, and opted to focus on shopping for a new
PC instead. The bad news is this punches a 10-14 day hole in progress
on HutchBook.com. The good news, however, is the new PC has been
ordered and hopefully it will arrive by late next week. The even better
news is the manufacturer offers a "downgrade" to Windows XP (for an
extra charge, of course), so the new machine will have the same
operating system I'm using now, and changing machines should be as easy
(famous last words!) as reinstalling the present software and pressing
on. The new machine also includes Windows Vista on CD, so I can upgrade
somewhere down the line when the timing is better.

As you can likely tell
from the Home page comments, EMail has been working most of the time and
I've updated a bunch of listings. I was also able to help several
collectors identify where their maverick Hutchinsons originated. As of
today we have 16,341 different Hutchinsons catalogued.

Caution:
Dangerous (learning) curves ahead!

February 28,
2009

I considered posting
"The Dog Ate My Homework" as a headline for this week's update, but the
reality is the new web site software has a learning curve that just
won't quit. I'm still a bit weary from last Sunday's marathon, and now
it seems like I'm running on a treadmill that has been set to "uphill at
maximum speed." There's no turning off the machine, of course, so I'm
still running and trying my best not to crash. All to say the web site
software doesn't work exactly like the tutorials and instructions
indicate it should, a situation further complicated by a PC that seems
to be on its last legs. I've been babying this PC along in hopes it
would last until HutchBook.com is launched, but it might not make it.
Building the new site is challenging enough without having to shop for,
purchase, and install a new PC in the middle of everything else that is
going on. If I'm suddenly off EMail or a weekly update is more than a
couple of days later than usual, bear with me as I'm probably busy doing
and/or fixing PC stuff.

This week's
correspondence dealt with a broad range of topics, including the
Hutchinson bottles used in Australia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and England,
several closures that are frequently confused with Hutchinson's Patent
Spring Stopper, and numerous inquiries about specific bottles. It is
encouraging to see more and more sellers doing a much better job of
fully describing Hutchinson bottle details such as glass color,
dimensions, mould shapes, front, back, and base embossings, and accurate
bottle condition. One GreedyBay listing caught my eye because the
seller included a very well written, brief overview detailing the
development and demise of Hutchinson stoppers. Unfortunately, the
seller lifted the paragraph word-for-word from this site's Hutchinson Bottle Sales
Guide
page, completely ignoring the requirement to cite the source. I
informed the seller he/she
needed to revise their listing to properly identify the source. I was
expecting a "sorry" or "oops" response along with a web site URL
listing, but instead the seller's reply was "My description has been
revised. Your info has been deleted." Such actions fuel my
long-standing belief that our hobby continues to attract too many
"takers" and not enough "givers."

The grand total number
of Hutchinsons catalogued is now at 16,333. It is worth noting that the
Pennsylvania total has now passed the 2,900 mark and seems destined to
easily hit 3,000. Imagine the size a bottle room would need to be to
display that many Hutchinsons!

February has been a
challenging and unusually busy month. Like a bottle digger toughing out
a long winter dreaming about good things to come in the spring time, I
am anticipating good things for the HutchBook in March.

My brain
hurts...

February 21,
2009

I spent way too much
time this week dealing with file incompatibility issues between the old
and new web site software. All attempts to shortcut the KocaNola.com
rebuilding process by cutting and pasting existing text have been
thwarted and I am reconstructing the site from scratch. It now looks
like it will be late next week before the new KocaNola.com site is up;
that's the bad news. The good news is I am gaining valuable practical
experience with the new software that is already helping with the site
design work for HutchBook.com.

Charles Benton, a
pioneer Hutchinson collector from DeLand, Florida, passed away early
this week at age 82. Charles was a long-time member of the M-T Bottle
Club of DeLand. He specialized in collecting Florida Hutchinsons for
almost 40 years and was a major contributor to the Hutchinson Bottle
Directoryinitiative. Rest in
peace, Charles.

For many years I have
been quite concerned about the long-term health of our bottle collecting
hobby. In my opinion, far too little attention is being given to
promoting the hobby and actively involving new participants. This topic
isn't rocket science: if our hobby isn't growing, it is dying. We are
constantly losing long-time collectors and I'm not seeing adequate
attention paid to attracting replacements, let alone expanding the total
number of collectors involved. This week I was at least temporarily
encouraged when a new local collector stopped by to visit and see my
collection. Three hours later, we had swapped numerous bottle stories
and, as always, it felt very good to pass on some of the knowledge
picked up during my 48 years of bottle collecting. The visitor
appreciated the
time I devoted to him and likewise, his new collector enthusiasm was
contagious; I can still feel it! Ask yourself what you
are doing to promote our hobby and if you don't like the answer, do
something about it.

Having this web site
found by those searching for information about Hutchinsons continually
reinforces my belief that the years of time and energy many of us have
put into the creation of HutchBook.com will produce dividends that far
exceed our expectations. This week's inquiry highlights featured a
collector with a previously unknown variant of a J. P. RENN JR. / NEW
ALBANY, IND., and a fellow with an example of a MONTGOMERY / CARBONATING
CO. / MONTGOMERY, W. VA. bottle he inherited from his grandfather.
If we build it, they will come! Fighting with the web site software all
week has made my
brain hurt, however, so tomorrow I'm taking a break and heading up near
the Canadian border to run a marathon.

Heart's
DesireHutchinsons...

February 14,
2009

I waited a couple of
extra days to post this update as an excuse to include the "heart"
picture Hutchinson rubbings on the Home
page. I didn't search the entire database of 16,319 Hutchinsons we have
catalogued to date, and could only remember the Olyphant has a pictured
heart. Fortunately, David Cole, our Texas Hutchinson specialist,
reminded me of the Dalhart bottle. Consider yourself loved if your
Valentine presented you with either one of these beauties!

The OLYPHANT / GP
(monogram) / BOTTLING WORKS Hutchinson has what looks like a
heart-shaped plate mould, but it is actually a private mould bottle with
the front lettering engraved inside a large heart. The bottle is two
leaf mold, aqua, 6.625" x 2.250" with private mould, blank back, G.P.
(large) on base, round base with 10 panel shoulders, and Rare. The
monogram and base initials stand for G. A. Prokopovits, a soda bottler
in Olyphant, Pennsylvania.

It took a couple of
days to recover from last Sunday's Valentine's Marathon, but once I
shifted out of low gear mentally, this has been another week of solid
progress on the HutchBook. Non-stop EMail and telephone activity
consumed considerable time, as did the on-going work on redesigning
KocaNola.com using the new web software. Speaking of which, I need to
get back at it if I'm going to have the rebuilt site moved to GoDaddy
hosting by the end of the week.

Speaking of
Hutchinsons...

February 6,
2009

Even though I only
accomplished half of the items on the seemingly never-ending HutchBook
to-do list, it has been a very productive week and I am pleased with the
progress that is being made.

Speaking of progress,
work on rebuilding Charles David Head's KocaNola.com
site is going well. If you haven't looked at his existing site lately
(or it has been awhile since you've looked at it), please do so ASAP so
you'll be familiar with the current look and able to compare that with
the new look the site will have when it is moved to GoDaddy.com hosting
very soon. Watch this site for a special announcement when the change
is implemented. The hands-on experience I'm gaining via this exercise
is already proving quite useful with HutchBook.com.

Speaking of web sites,
today's EMail brought exciting news from Steven Libbey (proprietor of
the outstanding MrBottles.com site in Wisconsin) about a new bottle and
antiques auction site. Check out Antique Auctions by MrBottles.com at
http://antiqueauctions.mrbottles.com/.
You're going to like this one!

Speaking of auctions,
my eye caught GreedyBay 300291930448, a listing for one of the 5.25"
tall W. H. BOYER / KINGSTON / PA. Hutchinsons. I believe this cute
little guy is the shortest Hutchinson we have catalogued.

Speaking of bottle
sizes, the aqua EDMONTON / BOTTLING / WORKS quart I mentioned last week
drew only three bids from two bidders and sold for $73. I'm thinking
the winning bidder picked up a terrific bargain.

Speaking of Canadian
Hutchinsons, don't miss GreedyBay 290294461720, a WEST & CO. / WINNIPEG
/ GINGER ALE. This is only the tenth Manitoba Hutchinson we have
catalogued, and the sole Canadian Hutchinson with a 10 panel base.

Speaking of the HBCA
(okay, I didn't mention the HBCA; I just wanted to keep the theme
going), the HBCA ad in the current AB&GC
magazine has generated several inquiries. If you aren't an HBCA member,
what are you waiting for?

Speaking of
memberships, if your love for soda bottle collecting extends beyond
Hutchinsons to ACLs, check out the www.thesodafizz.com
web site maintained by the Painted Soda Bottle Collectors Association.
I am a long-time member and consider the bi-monthly Soda Fizz
newsletter the best bottle-related publication I receive. It is the one
publication I stop and read no matter how busy I am.

Speaking of busy,
there's enough time left this evening to do a bit more work on the new
KocaNola.com site, so I'm out of here until next week.

On-the-job
training...

January 31,
2009

This update was almost
finished and when saving the file, Yahoo's "SiteBuilder" software
unilaterally decided to send the entire page (not just this new portion)
on a one-way trip to electronic Never-Neverland. Fortunately I was able
to copy the previous page content directly from the Internet, but doing
so necessitated spending the past hour reformatting the text. The
previous updates may look slightly different, but the content hasn't
changed. Computers!

There's no quiz again
this week as we are still chasing more tidbits of research information.
The bottles we're working on are worth the wait; stay tuned.

Rebuilding this page
using SiteBuilder reminded me why I am obtaining practical, on-the-job
experience by converting Charles David Head's KocaNola.com
site to the new web site software. My goal is to have it done by next
week.

Although the total
number of Hutchinsons catalogued has only grown to 16,306 several of the
newly identified examples are killer bottles, including:

GreedyBay 160312576718,
an aqua Hutchinson simply embossed BOYCE. LA. horizontally across a
round (oval) plate mould. It was misclassified under "Medicines and
Cures," so some potential bidders won't spot it when performing
searches. I suspect the serious Louisiana collectors will find it,
however!

Another GreedyBay
listing that caught my eye is 370152246300, an aqua quartHutchinson embossed EDMONTON / BOTTLING / WORKS.
This is the sole Canadian quart we have catalogued, and only our second
total Hutchinson listing for the Province of Alberta. Where are the
bidders?

The last one I'll
mention is a REMEMBER / THE / (battleship Maine) / MAINE that sold last
weekend on GreedyBay. Five bidders placed 15 bids and drove the price
up to $333. This is a bottle we've had catalogued for several years and
we believe it was produced for Sankey Bros. of Kittanning, PA. Clearly
other collectors besides me have it on their list of highly desirable
picture Hutchinsons; it's definitely in my top five.

If you're reading this,
I somehow convinced SiteBuilder to save and upload this page to Yahoo's
server. All of my fingers are crossed as I'm pushing the <Enter> key...

Racking up the
numbers...

January 23,
2009

I'm sorry not to deliver the pop quiz I mentioned
would be posted this week. There simply weren't enough hours available
to finalize the necessary research. Hopefully we'll have it together by
next week. It has been a particularly interesting challenge and I think
you will find it well worth the wait.

I would have to check back thru the time logs to be
sure (and I don't have time to do so!), but I believe the past week had
the most hours devoted to HutchBook activity during one week's time in
the past five years. Three of the days were 10+ hours, yet the project
continues to be great fun. I also managed to help Charles David Head
with his Koca Nola research, and in my spare time (ha, ha!) went thru
early American Carbonator and Bottler, The American Bottler,
and National Bottlers' Gazette magazines assisting Chris Weide
and Dennis Fewless with their massive project documenting bottler
histories. Its non-stop fun here!

Once again this week's highlight has been
continuing to evaluate and refine the HutchBook.com search engine and
list printing prototypes. Our collective years of gathering Hutchinson
bottle information will soon pay major dividends when we are all able to
search the entire database and obtain information we didn't dream would
be possible when the late Joe Nagy dared to tackle this project 30+
years ago. I am receiving desperately needed and greatly appreciated
database and search engine design assistance from a fellow long-time
collector who also happens to be an IT professional. You'll learn more
in weeks to come.

The grand total is now at 16,297. We added several
new listings this week, while also deleting quite a few listing errors
as we continue to steadily improve the quality of data we are capturing.

James Smith from Birmingham, AL called last night
to provide information on several nice Hutchinsons he recently acquired.
James and his brother Dennis from Buffalo, NY met in Birmingham last
week and attended a bottle show in Mississippi over the weekend. James
reported dealer and buyer attendance at the show was unusually high, and
sales were very strong. It is too soon to attribute this to the new
political administration, but let's hope it is a sign of positive
changes to come for our hobby! I have been hanging out by the mailbox
every day hoping a big economic stimulus check will arrive, but so far
no loot!

Busy hands are
happy hands...

January 15,
2009

If the headline adage
is true, I am about to overdose on happiness, as this has definitely
been a non-stop week. Several Hutchinson specialists took advantage of
the nasty winter weather gripping the country and busied themselves
sending data this way. My thanks to all of you! The grand total is now
at 16,292.

One of the more
interesting submissions came from John Patterson in Delaware. He seized
an opportunity to view and photograph a collection of over 900 Delaware
bottles, and presto, the Delaware Hutchinson total has jumped to 87.
This makes an increase of 21 since John and I met at the York Expo.
Yee haw!

A key decision made
this week concerns HutchBook.com bottle numbering:

2. Each bottle will be
assigned a number when the spreadsheets are converted to the database
software, e.g. the 14 Alaska Hutchinsons will be numbered AK1 thru AK14.
Those numbers will be locked the day of the conversion; and

3. As new bottles
and/or variants turn up, they will be inserted into the proper list and
assigned numbers with decimals, e.g. AK1.1. Therefore AK1 will always
identify the initially catalogued CAPE NOME / BOTTLING WORKS bottle.

The "Comments" portion
of the description will be utilized on occasion to tie catalogued
bottles to other publications, e.g. WA13 is the A. W. WARD / COLFAX /
WASH. bottle and the Comments might mention "See #92A in Washington
Sodas by Ron Fowler for historical information."

Time's up; pass your
answer sheets to the front of the row and let's see how you did on the
Home page pop quiz:

If you identified THE
F. C. LANG / BOTTLING Co. / CHICAGO bottle pictured on the Home page as
being from Illinois only, give yourself half credit. Lang was a major
Chicago bottler, but at some point either Lang or Pittsburgh, PA glass
manufacturer William McCully and Company shipped a load of Lang
Hutchinsons to Seattle, Washington. Digging these bottles in Seattle
was a mystery until when doing research for Washington Sodas
I found an October 30, 1897 trade mark filing by Seattle's Pacific &
Puget Sound Bottling Company. They registered "Bottles used in the
bottling of carbonated beverages, usually called soda water with the
words blown into the sides of said bottles as follows...Parallel with
the sides 'F. C. Lang Bottling Co., Chicago.'" Mystery solved. The
pictured example is displayed with my Pacific & Puget Sound Bottling Co.
Hutchinsons.

Answer(s) on the three
Riley bottles will be graded as one response. The bottles pictured on
the Home page are not California Hutchinsons. Although we have
catalogued several examples of Riley's Hutchinsons from California, the
illustrated bottles are from (drum roll, please) Seattle, Washington
Territory. Charles Riley and his son, Charles Frederick Riley, founded
Washington Territory's second bottling plant in 1876. In 1881, Charles
Riley was operating Pacific Soda Works in Portland, Oregon. In 1882 the
Rileys announced their intention to open a soda works in New Tacoma,
Washington Territory, but there is no evidence they followed thru with
those plans. According to the late Peck
Markota in A Look At California
Hutchinson Type Soda Bottles,
the Rileys operated bottling plants in Tombstone, Arizona Territory
(1881-1884), Eureka (1885-1886), San Bernadino (1887-1890s), and San
Jose (1890s-1930s). The three pictured bottles were dug together in the
Georgetown area, just south of downtown Seattle. The C. F. RILEY is
very crude with dark green swirls and is the oldest of the three
bottles. The C. F. RILEY / (eagle) / SODA WORKS and the C. F. RILEY &
Co / (eagle) / SODA WORKS variants feature identical eagles with their
heads turned to the viewer's right. The Riley Hutchinsons from
Washington Territory are only found in aqua (darn!).

Keep up with your
homework; we're putting together another quiz for next week!

Still crazy
after all these years...

January 8, 2009

Instead of making New
Year's resolutions to not do this and not do that, this year I prepared
a short list of areas on which to focus my attention. First and
foremost on the list is HutchBook.com. If the first week of 2009 is
indicative of how the year will go, many to-do list items are going to
be crossed off.

Considerable time and
thought is being given to how the HutchBook.com search engine works, the
search results that are generated, how bottle images are presented, and
the creation of lists suitable for printing by users. How these
features function significantly impacts database design. A good example
is the planned expansion of the database to include county names, area
(e.g. South Bethlehem, PA), and region (e.g. Long Island, NY; Upper
Peninsula, MI; etc.). In order to search on and present data for such
criteria, the database fields need to include these categories and the
records need to be populated with the appropriate data. The good news
is we're going to make it happen; stay tuned!

Once again this week
much time has been devoted to cataloguing newly acquired data. I
particularly want to acknowledge the on-going stellar support being
provided by Hutchinson Specialists Laton Bare for Florida, and Chris
Jordan for Illinois and Indiana. Laton and Chris are two of my favorite
collectors. They are both very detail-oriented, and working with such
folks is a large part of what is making this project so much fun. Both
of them continued to submit numerous photographs and data this week,
steadily upgrading the quality of the HutchBook database that we'll all
be able to utilize once the site is opened up.

In case you aren't
aware, American Bottle Auctions (www.AmericanBottle.com) is currently
conducting Auction #46. Navigate to their on-line catalog and check out
lots 24-29 and 38 to view several nice Hutchinsons that are listed for
sale. The P. E. WEAVER / KING CITY / SODA WORKS is a rare California
Hutchinson. My eyes were also drawn to the cobalt blue J. C. WESLEY /
WHITBY / 1883 from Whitby, Ontario, Canada. This bottle is one of the
seven colored Canadian Hutchinsons we have catalogued for HutchBook.com.

Another bottle that
caught my eye is GreedyBay 380094912608, an auction for a BEEBE TAFT &
Co / WARDNER / IDAHO, TER. Hutchinson. This rare bottle is the sole
Idaho Territory Hutchinson known to exist, and highly desired by those
working on 50 state and territorial collections. This particular
example has some issues (so will I when I'm 119 years old!), but
nonetheless it will likely take very big bucks to break thru the
sellers' reserve and win this one. Beebe Taft & Company also operated a
bottling plant in Colfax, Washington. Examples of their two different
W.T. and one Wash. Hutchinsons are equally as hard to find as the Idaho
Territory bottle. After 48 years of collecting, I'm still
chasing one of the W.T. variants. What a crazy hobby this is!

The grand total number
of Hutchinsons catalogued is now at 16,274 and still slowly climbing.
Keep those cards and letters (and EMail messages) coming!

2004-2008: Five
amazing years!

January 1, 2009

Five years ago today I
tore into three huge boxes of Joe Nagy's files that I had stored for
several years and began the months long process of sorting thru
disorganized bottle rubbings and photographs, data sheets, and other
materials. My best estimate at that point was it would take five years
to compile and publish a Hutchinson Bottle
Directory
containing information about somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000
different Hutchinson bottles. The project has since taken several major
twists and turns (fully detailed on the "Hutchinson Bottle Directory
Updates" page and this page), and five years later this initiative is
still a work-in-progress. Much as I wanted to meet or beat the five
year target, I fell short in spite of personally investing 6,500+ hours
of effort and missing only two days of working on the project seven days
per week during these five years. The lengthening time line has been
driven by the incredible quantity of bottles we have identified; the
year end 2008 grand total of 16,261 is double the original estimate! We
could have had a 3-4 volume paper book in print by now, but it would
have been out of date before the ink dried. Shifting publication to the
Internet will quickly prove to be worth the additional effort.

In spite of the holiday
season and nasty weather, the past week has been very productive. One of
the most encouraging events was a call from an archaeologist in Utah who
found this web site, read the project overview, and instantly recognized
what a useful resource HutchBook.com will be for the archaeological
community. I also enjoyed updating bottle data for IL, KY, ME, FL, and
other areas, and continued to plug away on the software tutorials. The
week's only downer was a Sunday drive 85 miles south to run the
Christmas Marathon only to discover the race organizers failed to notify
several of us the race had been cancelled due to severe weather. Like
the underlying theme of this web site, it's all about communication! Marathoning
won't pick up speed again until spring,
so now my full attention is on HutchBook.com!

Here's the HBCA news
that I mentioned would be posted this week: all HBCA members of
record as of 12-31-08 have been granted a FREE year of membership for
2009.
If you're not sure whether or not you're a member, check the HBCA page.
Please consider joining if you're not a member!

Although it is hard to
believe I have been involved with this project over half of my life, it
continues to be great fun because I love the subject matter and
thoroughly enjoy associating with so many other collectors across the
continent. Together we have gathered an amazing amount of information
that others will find useful for generations to come. It is incredibly
exciting to be on the verge of seeing our efforts come to fruition. 2009
is going to be amazing! Happy New Year!

We've
reached
another
major
milestone!

December 25,
2008

I no sooner posted last
week's update than the Christmas Marathon organizers postponed the race
until the 28th because of nasty Pacific Northwest weather. As of this
writing, Sunday's race is a go, but whether or not I toe the starting
line depends on what happens between now and then weather-wise. Stay
tuned!

In between holiday
activities, shoveling walkways and knocking snow and ice off of pancaked
plants, making sure the water pipes in my 85 year old house aren't
freezing, and running on snow, ice, and slush, I have been working on
software tutorials and plugging away on several other HutchBook.com
activities.

This week I
consolidated hosting for SeattleHistoryCompany.com, KocaNola.com
(Charles David Head's site), and HutchBook.com into a "deluxe"
GoDaddy.com account. This arrangement provides an unlimited number of
web sites for one set price. That price, by the way, is less than the
individual hosting cost for each of the two existing sites hosted by
Yahoo. If you're investigating URL registration and/or web hosting, be
sure to check out GoDaddy.com. The lower hosting costs are particularly
good news for the Hutchinson Bottle Collectors' Association, as this
should allow us to keep the annual membership fee at the extremely low
$6.00 level and perhaps reduce it even further. Check next week's update
for an announcement concerning 2009 HBCA membership.

As typically happens
during the holidays, the number of new Hutchinson listings slowed this
week while people were busy shopping, traveling, and dealing with winter
weather. The grand total is now at 16,252.

The most exciting project development for all of
2008 occurred this week with the highly successful testing of a
professionally-built, working prototype of the HutchBook.com search
engine. After five years of non-stop activity, it was fantastic to
perform actual searches and create lists! Users should find it very
easy to understand and utilize the new site. Working with actual data
opened my eyes even wider to the need for additional data
standardization and clean up, but that's not a big problem. I have
compared this project to running marathons before, and now I not only
see the finish line, I can hear the crowd and am beginning to enjoy the
warm, inner glow of knowing we're going to make it. You'll be hearing
much more soon.Ho, Ho, Ho!

Balancing
Quantity, Quality, and Time...

December 17,
2008

Analysis of the past
week's log reveals the majority of my time was devoted to correspondence
concerning newly catalogued bottles and correcting existing listings.
Although this activity cuts sharply into building HutchBook.com, it is
the heart and soul of the Hutchinson Bottle
Directory
initiative and continues to demand high priority attention. The grand
total number of Hutchinsons catalogued has jumped to 16,248 but it isn't
like we just slapped on 21 new listings this week. We logged in 23 new
bottles, deleted a duplicate listing and a beautiful cobalt blue bottle
we determined was a blob top soda rather than a Hutchinson, and filled
in hundreds of bits of previously missing data. Here's a brief peek into
the activity involved with the three bottles currently pictured on
the Home page and how we are continuing to focus on both quantity and
quality:

The rare ANNA BOTTLING
/ WORKS / JOE. BUMP / PROPRIETOR / ANNA, ILL. bottle was found near the
foundation of a Midwest home along with several common Hutchinsons.
This is our first listing for Anna, a small town in Southern Illinois,
and boosts the Illinois total to 1,052. This beauty has just been
listed as GreedyBay 180314881451. A big THANK YOU to the sellers for
permission to post their bottle photo. Watch out Wisconsin, Illinois is
about to move into third place for most Hutchinsons (WI = 1,068; NY =
1,310; PA = 2,880)!

The O. & C. B. BALINO /
KEY WEST, FLORIDA bottle is a fortuitous discovery thanks to great
legwork by two Hutchinson specialists. One of them recently acquired a
nice <> LA TROPICAL <> / Fca DE SODA / DE / OCTAVIO BALINO via an
on-line auction. We had this bottle catalogued as potentially being
from Mexico, but subsequently found a duplicate listing for it under Key
West, FL. Further investigation turned up the rare variant pictured on
the Home page. Special thanks to the bottle's owner for permission to
post the photo!

Information about the
attractive P. J. LEONARD / NEW CASTLE / DEL. bottle was submitted by
Delaware Hutchinson specialist John Patterson after he noted we
catalogued two Leonard Hutchinsons with round plate moulds, but missed
the variant with a horseshoe plate mould. This rare variant has a nice
PJL script monogram on the base. It sure helps to have extra folks
watching for variants!

An auction listing that
attracted only one bidder and sold for $4.99 (+ $10.00 P&H) is GreedyBay
180313515810, an unknown maverick quart embossed CRYSTAL WATER / CO. in
a round (oval) plate mould. Perhaps potential bidders didn't finding
the listing because the seller classified the bottle under "Medicines &
Cures?" Please review the listing and photos and contact us if you can
provide any information about the possible origin of this bottle.

Much of the continent
is experiencing significantly worse weather that ours, so I won't whine
too loudly about our record low temperatures with ice, snow, and single
digit wind chill factors. I was hoping to sneak in an extra marathon
last Saturday up near the Canadian border, but wimped out due to
hazardous driving conditions, low temperatures, and bone-chilling winds.
The weather guessers are predicting more nasty weather for Sunday's
Christmas Marathon south of Olympia, WA, but I'm still planning to be
there. Assuming I don't turn into a popsicle, I hope to report
significant HutchBook.com progress next week.

EMail,
Delaware, Minnesota, and Danica...

December 7,
2008

Last weekend's Seattle
Marathon went well and I was back up-to-full-speed mentally and
physically by Wednesday. That was fortunate, as this was another very
busy week, particularly for incoming EMail from Hutchinson collectors
across the continent. The holidays and the arrival of winter weather
were most likely both factors in keeping the EMail lines humming and in
causing a spike in the number of items listed at on-line auction sites.
Speaking of items, we have now catalogued 16,227 Hutchinsons and the
total keeps creeping upward.

John Patterson, our
Delaware Hutchinson specialist, provided the terrific photos currently
posted on the Home page. John's attractive display won both the FOHBC
"Most Educational" and "People's Choice" awards. That "fellow" seated
at the table is "Dr. Hutch," fresh from a Halloween gig on John's front
porch. Dr. Hutch ensured the 400+ show attendees obtained handouts on
the history of Hutchinson's Patent Spring Stopper, a list of Delaware
bottlers known to have utilized Hutchinson bottles, and HBCA membership
forms (THANK YOU, John!).

I sure like that THE
NEW CASTLE / BOTTLING CO. / (crossed U.S. flags) / NEW CASTLE, DEL.
Hutchinson. This beauty is two piece mold, clear, 7.75" x 2.25" with
round (watermelon-shaped) plate mould, REGISTERED on the back, blank
base, 10 panel base, and Rare. John and I discussed this bottle at the
FOHBC Expo in York, PA and he has since obtained photos of it thanks to
a fellow Delaware collector. If you know of an example of this bottle
that is for sale or trade, please contact John via EMail to
johndpatt@comcast.net. Thanks!

Another Hutchinson
specialist I heard from is Austin F., the "HutchLord," in Hopkins,
Minnesota. Austin sent me the latest issue of the Minnesota Bottle
Diggers' newsletter that he edits. The front page features photos of
beautiful, Rare, quart Hutchinsons from Detroit City and Alexandria,
Minnesota. Austin also provided an update on the extensive research
he's doing for a new Minnesota soda book. I placed an advance order for
a special edition and am really looking forward to adding the finished
product to my library. To learn more about Austin's project, EMail him
at austinsodaworks@yahoo.com.

I'm making steady
progress on the web design tutorial. I ran the first portion of last
weekend's marathon with a running buddy, but we became separated during
mile 10, so I spent the final 16.2 miles running by myself and mulling
over HutchBook.com design. Long runs often provide great opportunities
for quality thinking and I figured out what I think/hope is a good site
design. I've since documented everything by putting together a
"navigation view" diagramming the pages and how they are linked. I also
acquired a reference guide that is helping me better understand
construction of the database.

Lastly, after analyzing
various web hosting options, I decided to utilize GoDaddy.com.
Admittedly, I'm hoping Danica Patrick (she's one of GoDaddy.com's
spokespersons) will personally provide technical support, but it'll be
just my luck that she's too busy driving
Indy cars. More about GoDaddy next week.

Giving thanks
to the researchers...

November 27,
2008

Good fortune continued
with the welcomed arrival of additional information about the P. FAERBER
/ NEWPORT, R. I. / REGISTERED bottle mentioned in the previous update.
Thanks to the genealogical research skills of Hutchinson Specialist
Corey Stock in Jacksonville, FL, we now know considerably more about
this bottler. Corey found the full-page 1895 Newport, RI City
Directory
ad (currently illustrated on the Home Page) via ancestry.com. The ad
indicates the business was founded in 1847, with Peter Faerber as the
successor to James S. Hazard & Co. Hazard was a bottler in Westerly, RI
(39 miles away). Faerber isn't listed in the directories prior to 1885,
so it appears he may have
purchased Hazard's firm and moved it to Newport. The 1885 date,
combined with the "REGISTERED" embossing, strongly suggests this bottle
was originally manufactured for use with Hutchinson's Patent Spring
Stopper. Our thanks to "arkandsaw1958" for permission to post bottle
photos from his GreedyBay listing.

I made considerable
progress on the database and web design tutorials during the past few
days. The Seattle Marathon this coming Sunday will hopefully only be a
small bump in the road, and I hope to report more progress next week.

Happy Turkey Day to
all!

DECISIONS,
DECISIONS!

November 21,
2008

If you check this site
regularly, you have likely noticed updates of some sort are now being
posted on an almost daily basis. The pace of activity has picked up
this month and it is often easier to compose and post changes
immediately, rather than sporadically. I am hoping this approach is the
way HutchBook.com changes will be posted, particularly as regards
corrections, new bottle listings, and filling in missing bottle data.
Hosting fees are an important consideration, but the key factor for
HutchBook.com is having robust, easy-to-use/understand web hosting
service. I have been very pleased with Yahoo (they have hosted this
site and www.KocaNola.com since their inception), and they are a
finalist for hosting HutchBook.com, as is GoDaddy.com, et al. We plan
to complete our
evaluation and select HutchBook.com's host by 12-01-08. Stay tuned.

This has been a
particularly fun week for identifying unknown mavericks. Even though we
added a new one, we identified five that will soon be moved to their
respective state lists. Check out these latest successes by visiting the
Can You Identify These Unknown Hutchinsons?
page before the listings are moved!

GreedyBay 250322617743
is an interesting bottle that recently caught our eye. It is a P.
FAERBER / NEWPORT, R. I. / REGISTERED listed by the seller as "a true
Hutchinson...early teepee style." My first reaction was to think it was
a blob top/pony bottle with a Hutchinson stopper stuck in the mouth.
Or, given the steeply sloped shoulders, perhaps it was sealed with a
Matthews gravitating stopper? After corresponding with the seller,
evaluating close-up photos of the top, and corresponding with several
other collectors, I am now leaning toward cataloguing it as a newly
discovered Rhode Island Hutchinson. Tod von Mechow has catalogued a
similar pony variant used by this bottler at www.sodasandbeers.com, but
that bottle has a slightly different front embossing pattern. The base
of this example is not embossed with Matthews' 1864 patent information;
it is blank. The fact the bottle is embossed REGISTERED suggests to me
it is 1890 or later, seemingly too late to have utilized a gravitating
stopper, and smack in the middle of the Hutchinson era time-wise.
Adding a new Hutchinson for Rhode Island is big news; we've only
catalogued 11 Hutchinsons for Rhode Island, and this would be #12. On
the negative side, bidder reaction to the listing seems to suggest those
in the know may not believe the bottle is "a true Hutchinson;"
it drew only six bids from five different bidders and sold for $100. If
you can provide any information on the bottler's years of operation
and/or this bottle, please let us know.

Several folks who
regularly peruse the Caveat Emptor
page have noted it has not been updated for several months; this is not
accidental. The primary motivation for stopping my ranting has been the
conservation of time that was better invested in working on
HutchBook.com. Another reason has been the frustration of one way
communication with GreedyBay. They flatly refuse to respond and
routinely ignore the complaints of thousands of long-time, loyal
(increasingly "former") GreedyBay sellers and buyers. Their recent,
heavy-handed move to mandatory use of PayPal (which GreedyBay owns)
should be drawing major media attention, but the silence is deafening.
Meanwhile, sellers and buyers continue to flock to other on-line
auction sites. If I were a GreedyBay stockholder, I'd be screaming for
the heads of the GreedyBay executives who seem to have the company in a
death spiral. Are they planning to bail out and pull the ripcords on
their golden parachutes before impact? Time will tell.

In between all of the
other HutchBook activities, I am chipping away on the database and web
design tutorials. Several times this week I caught myself thinking I'm
actually beginning to understand how to use the new software! Speaking
of the tutorials, its time for me to work on another one.

STEP BY STEP
AND INSIDE OUT...

November 14,
2008

The Step by Step
and Inside Out
database, web design, and graphics tutorials I am working thru are very
well written Microsoft Press publications. It has been a relief to
utilize standardized Microsoft screen commands while learning to use the
new programs, rather than also having to deal with unfamiliar
terminology, different locations for command buttons, etc. In spite of
several interruptions this week, overall progress is steady. HutchBook
correspondence is non-stop as we gather missing data, catalogue new
bottles (the grand total is now 16,209), and discuss unidentified
bottles (check out the new maverick we just added, and be watching for
information on another newly identified one to be posted soon).

My sincere thanks to
everyone who is actively supporting the HutchBook project!

SO MUCH TO DO,
SO FEW HOURS...

November 5,
2008

Progress on the
software tutorials has been sporadic the past few days thanks to
interruptions caused by: raking the yard three times (will the leaves
ever stop falling?); voting (thank goodness the political ad machines
have been turned off!); breaking a tooth and visiting the dentist for
yet another crown installation (aging sucks); a long training run (my
28th Seattle Marathon approaches); rearranging HutchBook files (they now
fill eight legal-size file drawers); and considerable HutchBook-related
correspondence. Speaking of which, don't miss the new information on
the
Can You Identify These Unknown Hutchinsons?
page. This week's key word is "focus!"

HUTCHBOOK.COM
IS HEADED FOR PORT!

October 31,
2008

The Hutchinson
Bottle Directory initiative continues to be an unusual project
because of the decision to make and implement on-going major decisions
in full public view. Consistent, high quality user involvement in the
decision-making process has me believing HutchBook.com will be of far
greater value to end users than we originally thought possible.
Producing regular updates has been an effective communications tool,
freeing up additional time to work on the project and eliminating hours
of answering phone and EMail project status inquiries.

This project has
experienced many ups and downs since being initiated in 1976. For the
benefit of those who may be late to the party, here’s an abbreviated
project time line:

1976-1993: The late Joe
Nagy founded the project and worked on it steadily into the early 1980s
before suspending activity. He passed away in late 1993.

1994-2003: I obtained
Joe’s files in 1994 and stored them until I retired.

2004-present: The
project was re-initiated 01-01-04. We estimated it would take five
years to gather and publish the data. Major milestones have included:

July 2004 = 8,000+
listings

September 2004 = 9,000
listings

December 2004 = 10,000
listings

December 2004 = 11,000
listings

January 2005 = 12,000
listings

May 2005 = 13,000
listings

December 2005 = 14,000
listings

January 2006 = Decision
to switch publishing from paper to HutchBook.com

During the past 60 days
it became apparent the web designer hired to build HutchBook.com would
not be able to deliver a site meeting the desired specifications at the
agreed upon price. He suggested a shortcut approach that would have
drastically limited site search capability, eliminated illustrations
that accompany the informational text, and several other changes that
simply were not acceptable. Rather than agreeing to scale back the
specifications and eliminate desired features, I opted to terminate the
services of the designer. Doing so left me feeling like I had just
completed three years on spin cycle and been hung out to dry, but thanks
to some quick scrambling and the strong and much appreciated support of
several collectors/friends (THANK YOU Tod, T.J., Bill, Paul, Jamison,
Jim, and Joan!), “Plan B” has come together nicely. Indeed, this update
is the first in a series of announcements that will carry us forward to
the launch of HutchBook.com. Effective
immediately, I am stopping the usual monthly Hutchinson Bottle Directory
updates in favor of more frequent postings on this HutchBook page.

Here’s where we are as
of October 31, 2008:

I have assumed full
responsibility for designing, building, and maintaining
HutchBook.com. Four years of experience building and maintaining
SeattleHistoryCompany.com and KocaNola.com have provided a solid base of
knowledge on the basics of web site construction. This month I have
acquired and installed web site software that includes the features
needed for HutchBook.com. I am currently working thru a tutorial to
learn how to fully use this software.

With the close
assistance of some very experienced web site developers,
the existing Hutchinson bottle spreadsheets will be converted to a
database structure and set up for use via HutchBook.com. This week I
acquired and installed new database software and I am now working my way
thru a tutorial to learn to fully use this software.

I am evaluating
Microsoft graphics software that may make it easier to
produce the Hutchinson bottle illustrations. You’ll hear/see more on
this topic as the evaluation unfolds.

Although I am not
announcing a target launch date for HutchBook.com., it won’t be long
until you will be able to access the site. Instead of waiting until all
of the information is prepared/completed, I intend to open the site up
and build it in stages as everyone follows along. The benefits of
utilizing the information sooner rather than later will hopefully
outweigh any confusion caused by this approach. The current plan is to
first move the informational text up, then focus on the Hutchinson
bottle database, and add in the illustrations as they are completed.
The site will include a Home page “road map” so users can track what
is/isn’t completed, the latest additions and changes, etc.

A special thank you to
the Hutchinson specialist who helped us upgrade the quantity and quality
of Toronto, Ontario, Canada listings this month. The grand total is now
at 16,194 and still climbing.